Services / Environmental Science
FERC Relicensing
The process of relicensing an existing hydroelectric plant or licensing a new one from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) involves a comprehensive look at a wide variety of river basin issues. A full range of purposes related to the use of stream and river systems need to be considered, including water rights, flood control, irrigation and M&I demands, instream flow requirements, water quality and environmental impacts. Hydrosphere provides a full suite of skills to tackle these issues and we stay current on the federal statutes affecting relicensing efforts.
Our FERC relicensing assignments have included evaluation of data gathering and temperature modeling efforts for relicensing of a hydropower plant in Montana, investigation into the potential impacts of a proposed pumped-storage hydroelectric plant in Wyoming, and assessment of impacts of a relicensing effort on a downstream municipality with an ownership interest in the project.
- Hydrosphere's FERC relicensing services include:
- Environmental assessment
- Analysis of various operational scenarios
- Hydrologic modeling
- Water-quality modeling
- Reservoir and river system modeling
- Database development and decision support
- Alternatives analysis